Systems and methods for automatically enabling subtitles based on user activity

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for automatically enabling subtitles are provided. A user request is received from a user input device to access a first media asset. A type of activity associated with the user is detected in response to receiving the user request. The type of activity is cross-referenced with a database of activity types associated with subtitles stored in a storage device. A subtitles setting is automatically enabled when the subtitles setting is disabled, in response to determining that the type of activity associated with the user is associated with subtitles.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, consumers of media who desire to view subtitleshave to manually set their preferences for when closed-captioning shouldbe enabled. However, setting up such preferences can be confusing andburdensome to the users. Accordingly, most users simply resort tomanually enabling or disabling closed captioning each time they have aneed to toggle the display of subtitles.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for automaticallysetting up user preferences for enabling subtitles.

In some embodiments, systems and methods for automatically enablingsubtitles are provided. A user request to enable subtitles setting isreceived while the user is viewing a first media asset. For example, auser may press a dedicated remote control button to change the subtitlessetting or through an on-screen menu selection change the subtitlessetting to be enabled. A characteristic associated with the first mediaasset is retrieved. In some implementations, the characteristics mayinclude at least one of a genre, a category, a length, a media assettype, a content source, and a media asset format.

An indication of user preference for subtitles of media assetsassociated with the retrieved characteristic is automatically stored inresponse to receiving the user request. In some implementations, theindication is stored in a user profile indicating that the user preferssubtitles for media assets associated with the retrieved characteristic.In some implementations, the indication is stored in a database thatassociates characteristics of media assets with states of the subtitlessetting. The subtitles setting may be automatically enabled when thesubtitles setting is disabled, based on the stored indication, when asecond media asset that is associated with the retrieved characteristicis accessed. The stored indication may be shared with other users andused by devices associated with the other users to determine whether ornot to enable a subtitles setting for those users when they requestaccess to content having the corresponding characteristic.

In some implementations, after the user changes the subtitles setting,the user may request to access a third media asset. While accessing thethird media asset, the user may request to change the subtitles settingto be in the disabled state. In some implementations, the media guidanceapplication may update a profile (which may contain a database)associated with the user to indicate that for media assets having thecharacteristic of the third media asset, the subtitles setting stateshould be disabled.

When the user later requests to access the second media asset (e.g.,after accessing the first media asset followed by the third mediaasset), the media guidance application may determine whether or not toautomatically change the subtitles setting state. Specifically, themedia guidance application may retrieve a characteristic of the secondmedia asset and determine whether it matches the characteristic of thefirst media asset. If the characteristic of the second media assetmatches the characteristic of the first and the subtitles setting iscurrently in the disabled state, the media guidance application mayautomatically enable the subtitles setting.

In some embodiments, systems and methods for automatically enablingsubtitles are provided based on user activity types. A user request maybe received from a user input device to access a first media asset. Atype of activity associated with the user is detected in response toreceiving the user request. The type of activity is cross-referencedwith a database of activity types associated with subtitles stored in astorage device. A subtitles setting is automatically enabled when thesubtitles setting is disabled, in response to determining that the typeof activity associated with the user is associated with subtitles.

In some implementations, the type of activity may correspond to abiometric state of the user, brain activity of the user, a physicalactivity of the user, and/or a location. The type of activity may bedetermined by receiving at least one of biometric information, brainwaveinformation, and location information from a mobile device associatedwith the user. The mobile device may be a wearable device. In someimplementations, the type of activity may be detected based on a gestureor combination of gestures a user makes. The gesture or combination ofgestures may indicate that the user is performing a physical activity(e.g., running). Based on the physical activity, the media guidanceapplication may enable or disable the subtitles setting. In someimplementations, the subtitles setting is changed back to a previousstate (e.g., disabled if it was enabled) when the media guidanceapplication detects that the activity type is no longer present (e.g.,the physical activity ended).

In some embodiments, the database of activity types associated with thesubtitles setting state may be generated and/or updated based ondetecting activity types associated with the user when the user requeststo enable/disable the subtitles setting.

In some embodiments, when the subtitles setting is enabled, thesubtitles corresponding to a media asset presented on a first device arepresented to the user on a second device (e.g., a second screen device).In some implementations, the subtitles are presented in an overlayingrelationship with the media asset on the same user equipment device.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance application listings in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative display screen of a media asset for which asubtitles setting has been automatically enabled in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 6 and 7 show illustrative databases for associating acharacteristic and/or activity type with a subtitles setting inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams of a process for automatically updatinguser preferences for subtitles in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure; and

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a process for automatically enabling a subtitlessetting based on activity types in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for automatically setting upuser preferences for enabling subtitles and/or for automaticallyenabling a subtitles setting based on activity types. As referred toherein, the term “subtitles” is used interchangeably with the term“closed-captioning” and should be understood to have the same meaning.As referred to herein, a “subtitles setting” is an option having anenabled state and a disabled state. When the subtitles setting is in theenabled state, subtitles, if available, are presented with a mediaasset. When the subtitles setting is in the disabled state, subtitlesare not presented for a media asset. In some implementations, thesubtitles setting is a global setting that controls subtitles for everymedia asset that is displayed on a user equipment. Accordingly, enablingthe subtitles setting results in the presentation of subtitles for everymedia asset that is accessed from any content source (e.g., channel)until the subtitles setting is disabled.

With reference to media assets or content, the amount of contentavailable to users in any given content delivery system can besubstantial.

Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidance through aninterface that allows users to efficiently navigate content selectionsand easily identify content that they may desire. An application thatprovides such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive mediaguidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance application or aguidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), subtitles, media format (e.g., standard definition, highdefinition, 3D, etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images,media clips, etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and anyother type of guidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate amongand locate desired content selections.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 and5 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform.While the displays of FIGS. 1-2 and 5 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remotecontrol or other user input interface or device. In response to theuser's indication, the media guidance application may provide a displayscreen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, suchas by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, bycontent type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, orother categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, orother organization criteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid program listings display 100 arranged bytime and channel that also enables access to different types of contentin a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with: (1) a columnof channel/content type identifiers 104, where each channel/content typeidentifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a differentchannel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers106, where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifiesa time block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of programlistings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides thetitle of the program provided on the listing's associated channel andtime. With a user input device, a user can select program listings bymoving highlight region 110. Information relating to the program listingselected by highlight region 110 may be provided in program informationregion 112. Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, theprogram description, the time the program is provided (if applicable),the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, andother desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, a subtitles setting, or other features. Optionsavailable from a main menu display may include search options, VODoptions, parental control options, Internet options, cloud-basedoptions, device synchronization options, second screen device options,options to access various types of media guidance data displays, optionsto subscribe to a premium service, options to enable/disable thesubtitles setting, options to edit a user's profile, options to access abrowse overlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

In some embodiments, user profile information may include biometricstate and/or emotional state information. For example, the user profilemay include associations of biometric states and emotional states withdifferent categories of information based on user interactions with anapplication. For example, a media guidance application may store aprofile of user interactions with action movies when the user is in anangry emotional state and with drama movies when the user is in adepressed emotional state. The media guidance application may providerecommendations based on a determined biometric state and/or emotionalstate of a user and the stored user profile. The media guidanceapplication, in some embodiments, may enable/disable the subtitlessetting based on the biometric state, emotional state, and/or brainwaveinformation associated with the user. As referred to herein, the phrase“activity type” refers to information representing any combination ofbiometric state, emotional state, physical activity being performed bythe user, location information, any activity that inhibits or impairsthe user's ability to hear audio corresponding to a media asset, and/orbrainwave information.

In some embodiments, the user interactions with the media guidanceapplication may be used to develop associations between biometric statesand the subtitles setting. For example, the media guidance applicationmay detect elevated body temperature and elevated pulse rate when thesubtitles setting is enabled by the user. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may store in database 700 an association betweenelevated body temperature and elevated pulse rate and enablement of thesubtitles setting. When these biometric states are detected at a futuretime and the subtitles setting is determined to be in a disabled state,the media guidance application may automatically enable the subtitlessetting. Specifically, database 700 may include multiple entries. Eachentry may include an activity type field and a corresponding subtitlessetting state field. The activity type field may identify the activitytype of the user and the subtitles setting field may indicate thecorresponding state of the subtitles setting for that activity type.

In some embodiments, user profile information may be transmitted to aserver for processing. The user profile information may also be used tocalibrate cross-referencing databases used to associate biometric stateswith the subtitles setting. A pool of information from multiple usersmay be collected to determine common correlations between biometricstates and the subtitles setting.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. Selection of option 204 may return the user togrid 102 (FIG. 1).

In display 200 listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listings 208, 210 and 212 mayinclude more than one portion, including media portion 214 and textportion 216. Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectableto view content in full-screen or to view information related to thecontent displayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for thechannel that the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306, detecting circuitry 320 and storage 308.Control circuitry 304 may be used to send and receive commands,requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 302. I/O path 302 mayconnect control circuitry 304 (and specifically processing circuitry306) to one or more communications paths (described below). I/Ofunctions may be provided by one or more of these communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Control circuitry may also instruct detecting circuitry 320, which canbe used to detect and/or identify a user or users without requiring theuser or users to make any affirmative actions by using any suitablebiometric determination technique, such as facial determination,brainwave information, body temperature determination, heart ratedetermination, odor determination, scent determination, body shapedetermination, voice determination, behavioral determination, any othersuitable biometric determination technique or any combination thereof.

Detecting circuitry 320 may include monitoring component 316 and powermanagement unit 318. Monitoring component 316 may include one or morecomponents (e.g., an EEG, EMG, pulse oximeter, etc.) for monitoring anactivity type (e.g., biometric state, location, or brainwaveinformation) of a user. As referred to herein, “location” refers to anyrelative or absolute identifier of a position, such as a geographicalcoordinate, vector for direction, street address, name of building, orany other suitable identifier. For example, a location may be indicatedby coordinates in a geographic coordinate system (e.g., latitude orlongitude), or a global positioning system (GPS).

It should be noted, monitoring component 316 may, in some embodiments,be located on a separate device in communication with the device uponwhich a media guidance application (and control circuitry 304) isimplemented. For example, in some embodiments, monitoring component 316may communicate with device 300 via a communications network (e.g.,communications network 414 (FIG. 4)). In some embodiments, monitoringcomponent 316 may be a wearable device (e.g., a wristband, headband,watch, etc.).

In some embodiments, monitoring circuitry may monitor brain activity ofa user. Monitoring component 316 may transmit updates (e.g., associatedwith brain activity) of a user to control circuitry 304. Controlcircuitry 304 may compare the updates to data related to brain activity(e.g., threshold ranges, frequency ranges, etc.) of the user and/orother users stored on storage 308 (e.g., to determine whether or not thebrain activity of the user corresponds to a particular threshold rangeand/or mood, attentiveness level, activity type, a subtitles setting,etc.).

In some embodiments, monitoring component 316 may include one or more ofa temperature sensor, a pulse oximeter, a motion sensor, anaccelerometer, an optical sensor, or any other suitable sensor fordetermining a biometric state of a user. Monitoring component 316 mayinclude any suitable hardware and/or software to perform biometricdetection and determination operations. For example, monitoringcomponent 316 may include infrared, optical, and/or radio-frequencyreceivers and/or transmitters. Monitoring component 316 mayadditionally, or alternatively, include one or more microphones and/orcameras to detect audible and/or visual information, respectively. Themicrophone may be capable of receiving sounds within the audible rangeand/or outside the audible range. The camera may be capable of capturinginformation within the visual spectrum and/or outside the visualspectrum. For example, the camera may be able to capture infraredinformation, ultraviolet information, or any other suitable type ofinformation.

In some embodiments, detecting circuitry 320 may additionally, oralternatively, include palm, fingerprint, and/or retinal readers fordetecting and/or identifying users based on biometric information abouta user. In some embodiments, detecting circuitry may communicate toprocessing circuitry 306 and/or storage 308 various detection and/oridentification mechanisms indicating whether a user is detected and/oridentified at a particular device.

As referred to herein, the term “biometric state” should be understoodto mean a metric or measure indicative of a physiological state of auser, such as measurements of chemical content in body fluids (e.g.,salt electrolyte concentration in perspiration, blood alcohol level,hormonal levels in blood, glucose level in blood, oxygen content ofblood), measurements of circulation (e.g., pulse, heart rate), bodytemperature, brain activity (e.g., measured via electroencephalograms),or any other suitable measurements. As referred to herein, the term“emotional state” should be understood to mean a metric of measureindicative of a psychological state or mental state of a user, such asangry, sad, depressed, happy, agitated, bored, or any other suitablestate.

For example, using an infrared camera and light source, processingcircuitry 306 may generate a three-dimensional map of an area. Aplurality of IR beams may each be modulated and encoded to bedistinguishable, transmitted from the IR light source and directed atvarious points in an area. Each of the beams may reflect off objects inthe room back towards the camera. Depending on the distance traveled byeach light beam, the time of flight, or time traveled by each light beammay vary. If the IR camera and light source are placed side by side,travel time of the light beam may correlate to the distance of an objectfrom the light source and camera. The time of flight may be measured asthe time between transmission of the encoded beam from the light sourceand detection of the encoded beam at the camera. By correlating the timeof flight of beams, and the initial direction of the beam, processingcircuitry 306 and/or detecting circuitry 320 may generate thethree-dimensional map of the area. Based on the three-dimensional map,control circuitry 304 may detect and identify distinct bodies of users,and determine distance of the body from the biometric device. Usingcolor cameras and face detection, control circuitry 304 may detect oridentify users.

Using microphones and voice recognition, control circuitry 304 maydetect or identify users based on the physical characteristics of theirvocal tract through voice recognition or identification. Using a soundsource and an array of microphones, control circuitry 304 may determineinformation about the shape of the area surrounding the biometric devicethrough acoustic localization, similar to the time-of-flight methoddescribed above in reference to IR light. For example, a sound sourcemay be located near an array of microphones. A sound broadcast from thesound source may propagate as a wave front away from the source. As thewave front impacts an object, portions of the wave front may bereflected toward the sound source and array of microphones. Depending onthe position of the object, the reflected sound may arrive at themicrophone at different times. For example, the reflected sound mayarrive at a closer microphone in a shorter amount of time than at afarther microphone. Based on the time or phase difference in arrivaltime at various microphones, total travel time of the sound, andpositions of the microphones, it may be possible to generate a spatialareal map. Location of objects may be determined based on the spatialareal map generated via acoustic localization, IR time of flight, anyother suitable mapping method, or any combination thereof. It should beunderstood that various biometric techniques and devices may be usedalone, or in combination to supplement each other to more accuratelyidentify or detect users.

In some embodiments voice recognition may be used to determine biometricand/or emotional states. For example, voice recognition may be performedon speech of a user to find words spoken during certain biometricstates. Detecting circuitry 320 or control circuitry 304 may correlatespoken words and other biometric states such as heart rate and bodytemperature for storage in cross-referencing databases. Analysis andcorrelation of vocal tones may also be performed.

In some embodiments, detecting circuitry 320 may use any suitable methodto determine the distance, trajectory, and/or location of a user inrelation to an electronic device. The electronic device may also use,for example, triangulation and/or time-difference-of-arrivaldetermination of appropriate information to determine a user's locationin relation to an electronic device. For example,time-difference-of-arrival values of sounds emanating from a user may bedetermined. In some embodiments, any suitable image processing, videoprocessing, and/or computer vision technique may be used to determine auser's distance, trajectory, and/or location in relation to anelectronic device. A user's distance, trajectory, and/or location inrelation to an electronic device may be determined using any suitablemethod.

In some embodiments, detecting circuitry 320 and/or control circuitrymay conduct analysis on information from one or more monitoringcomponents 316 to determine gestures. For example, movements of a hand,detected by an accelerometer worn on a wrist of a user may be used todetermine gestures at certain points in time. The gestures may becorrelated with other biometric states, brainwave information, locationinformation, and/or emotional states to determine whether toenable/disable the subtitles setting.

In some embodiments, processing circuitry 306 may determine a locationbased on global positioning system (GPS) measurements, or, in the caseof cellular telephones, measurements based on cell-tower signals, doneby detecting circuitry 320. Processing circuitry 306 may use thesemeasurements to determine location coordinates, which may be transmittedto other electronic devices. The processing circuitry may determine alocation of the user to determine whether or not to enable/disable thesubtitles setting.

In some embodiments, detecting circuitry may be used to identify a userbased on a determined biometric state or biometric information about theuser. An identified user may refer to a user who may be recognizedsufficiently by a device to associate the user with a user profile. Insome embodiments, the user may be associated with a group of users, asopposed to, or in addition to, being associated with a unique userprofile. For example, the user may be associated with the user's family,friends, age group, sex, and/or any other suitable group. A detecteduser may refer to a user whose presence is detected by a device, but whois not yet identified by the device.

The contextual information may also include gesture information,determined based on movements of a user. For example, control circuitry304 may determine gestures based on accelerometers in wearable devicesof a user. Rapid gestures may indicate an angry emotional state, whileslow regular movements may indicate a calm emotional state. Controlcircuitry 304 may cross-reference the gestures with a database thatassociates gestures with the subtitles setting to determine whether ornot to enable the subtitles setting. For example, the database maymaintain a history of gestures that the user performed that werefollowed by or preceded by the user enabling the subtitles setting.These gestures may be mapped in the database to indicate to controlcircuitry 304 to enable or disable the subtitles setting when the userperforms the same or similar gestures in the future.

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. For example, storage 308 may be used tostore database 600 that associates different content characteristicswith the enablement/disablement of a subtitles setting. Specifically,database 600 may include multiple entries. Each entry may include acharacteristics field and a corresponding subtitles setting state field.The characteristics field may identify the characteristic of the mediaasset and the subtitles setting field may indicate the correspondingstate of the subtitles setting for that characteristic. Similarly,storage 308 may be used to store database 600 that associates differentactivity types (e.g., brainwave information, location information,biometric states, physical activity, and/or gestures) with theenablement/disablement of a subtitles setting. Nonvolatile memory mayalso be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions).Cloud-based storage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used tosupplement storage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application whollyimplemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a website accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device (e.g., the second screen device may provide subtitles,when the subtitles setting is enabled, for content presented on a firstdevice). The content presented on the second screen device may be anysuitable content that supplements the content presented on the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G, XLTE, and/or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephonenetwork, or other types of communications network or combinations ofcommunications networks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately ortogether include one or more communications paths, such as, a satellitepath, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internetcommunications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcastor other wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wirelesscommunications path or combination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn withdotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG.4 it is a wireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid linesto indicate they are wired paths (although these paths may be wirelesspaths, if desired). Communications with the user equipment devices maybe provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shownas a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

In some embodiments, wireless user communications device 406 may includewearable devices (e.g., monitoring component 316) that are positioned ona user. For example, wireless user communications device 406 may includesmart eyewear, smart watches, any other suitable user device that iswearable, or any combination thereof. The type of wearable device mayaffect the type of biometric state that can be determined. For example,a wearable headset device may include electrodes as part of monitoringcomponent 316 and may be able to determine and monitor brain activity ofa user. For example, a wearable ring device may include a temperaturesensor to detect body temperature and may include a pulse oximeter todetermine a pulse rate and a blood oxygen level.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application automatically buildsa profile for a user (e.g., populates databases 600 and 700) thatindicates for which content characteristics and/or activity types theuser prefers to have subtitles. The media guidance application maymonitor user interactions and specifically when the userenables/disables the subtitles setting to build the profile. When amedia asset is being accessed having characteristics that match acharacteristic in the user profile for which the subtitles setting wasenabled, the media guidance application automatically enables thesubtitles setting, if it was disabled.

For example, the user may request to access a given first media asset(e.g., the user may tune to a channel on which the show “Seinfeld” isprovided). In response, the media guidance application may present thefirst media asset (e.g., “Seinfeld”) to the user. While watching thefirst media asset, the media guidance application may receive a userrequest to enable the subtitles setting because the setting waspreviously disabled. Accordingly, the media guidance application maybegin presenting subtitles for the first media asset. In response toreceiving the user request to enable the subtitles setting, the mediaguidance application may retrieve one or more characteristics associatedwith the first media asset. For example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve any information associated with the first media asset asthe characteristic (e.g., a category of the first media asset, a genre,a type, length, a quality indicator such as HD or SD, a title, a contentsource, a time, and/or any combination thereof). In someimplementations, the media guidance application may select a combinationof one or more of the multiple characteristics associated with the mediaasset for use as the characteristic.

In some embodiments, in response to receiving the user request to enablethe subtitles setting, the media guidance application maycross-reference database 600 (FIG. 6) to determine whether the one ormore selected characteristics exist in database 600 alone or as acombined entry. For example, if the media guidance application selects agenre and type as the characteristic, the media guidance application maycross-reference database 600 to determine whether an entry for thecombination of genre (e.g., comedy) and type (e.g., broadcast program)exists. If an entry in database 600 exists for the selectedcharacteristic(s), the media guidance application may determine whetherthe associated subtitles setting is an enabled state or a disabledstate. In response to determining that the associated subtitles settingis the enabled state, the media guidance application may not updatedatabase 600. Alternatively, in response to determining that theassociated subtitles setting is the disabled state, the media guidanceapplication may update the entry in database 600 to change theassociated subtitles setting to be the enabled state. If the usersubsequently requests access to a media asset with the same or similarselected characteristics, the media guidance application mayautomatically enable the subtitles setting, if it is disabled, based onthe indication in database 600.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may only update asubtitle setting state in database 600 after receiving a thresholdnumber of similar inconsistent requests. For example, the user mayrequest that the subtitle setting be enabled while viewing a media assethaving a given characteristic. If the characteristic is associated indatabase 600 with a disabled state, the media guidance application maydetermine for that same characteristic how many times the userpreviously requested that the subtitles setting be enabled. If the userpreviously requested that the subtitles setting for media assets havingthe same characteristics be enabled more than a threshold number oftimes (e.g., more than 5 times), and the associated subtitles setting isthe disabled state, the media guidance application may update the entryin database 600 to change the associated subtitles setting to be theenabled state. If the user previously requested that the subtitlessetting for media assets having the same characteristics be enabled lessthan a threshold number of times (e.g., less than 5 times), and theassociated subtitles setting is the disabled state, the media guidanceapplication may maintain the state of the entry in database 600 asdisabled state.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update asubtitle setting state in database 600 to correspond to a majority ofsubtitles setting requests. For example, one user may request that thesubtitles setting be enabled while viewing a media asset having a givencharacteristic whereas another user may request that the subtitlessetting be disabled for a different media asset having the same givencharacteristic. If the characteristic is associated in database 600 witha disabled state, the media guidance application may determine amajority of previous user requests (e.g., over a given period of time(days) associated with enabling or disabling the subtitles setting. Ifthe majority previous user requests for media assets having the samecharacteristics were to enable the subtitles setting, and the associatedsubtitles setting is the disabled state, the media guidance applicationmay update the entry in database 600 to change the associated subtitlessetting to be the enabled state. If the majority previous user requestsfor media assets having the same characteristics were to disable thesubtitles setting, and the associated subtitles setting is the disabledstate, the media guidance application may maintain the state of theentry in database 600 as disabled state.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include with asubtitle setting state in database 600 a user identifier. For example,the user may request that the subtitle setting be enabled while viewinga media asset having a given characteristic. The media guidanceapplication may identify the user (e.g., using biometric information,facial recognition, or based on a stored user profile). In response toreceiving the user request to enable the subtitles setting, the mediaguidance application may cross-reference database 600 to determinewhether the one or more selected characteristics exist in database 600alone or as a combined entry. For example, if the media guidanceapplication selects a genre and type as the characteristic, the mediaguidance application may cross-reference database 600 to determinewhether an entry for the combination of genre (e.g., comedy) and type(e.g., broadcast program) exists. If an entry in database 600 exists forthe selected characteristic(s), the media guidance application maydetermine whether the entry corresponds to the identity of the user. Ifthe entry corresponds to the identity of the user and the associatedsubtitles setting is the enabled state, the media guidance applicationmay not update database 600. If the entry corresponds to the identity ofthe user and the associated subtitles setting is the disabled state, themedia guidance application may update the entry for the user in database600 to be associated with an enabled subtitles setting state. In someimplementations, if the entry does not correspond to the identity of theuser and the associated subtitles setting is the enabled state, themedia guidance application may add a new entry in database 600 that isassociated with the identity of the user. The new entry may indicatethat for this particular user having the user identification, thesubtitles setting should be enabled for media assets having the selectedcharacteristics. If the same user subsequently requests access to amedia asset with the same or similar selected characteristics, the mediaguidance application may automatically enable the subtitles setting, ifit is disabled, based on the indication in database 600. However, if adifferent user subsequently requests access to a media asset with thesame or similar selected characteristics, the media guidance applicationmay maintain the state of the subtitles setting (e.g., disabled if it isdisabled), based on the indication in database 600.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatan entry in database 600 does not exist for the selectedcharacteristic(s). In response, the media guidance application may addan entry to database 600 with the selected characteristic(s) and anassociated indication that the subtitles setting is in the enabledstate.

In some embodiments, database 600 may be shared and updated amongmultiple users. For example, database 600 may be stored on a remoteserver. As different users enable/disable subtitles settings of theirrespective devices, the shared database 600 may be updated to indicatethe corresponding enabled/disabled state for the characteristic of themedia asset the respective user is accessing. The media guidanceapplication may query database 600 at the remote server to determinewhether a corresponding characteristic is associated with an enabled ordisabled state of the subtitles setting. The remote server may respondto the media guidance application with the indication of whether thecharacteristic is associated with the enabled or disabled state of thesubtitles setting and the media guidance application may automaticallyadjust the subtitles setting accordingly.

Subsequent to accessing the first media asset and enabling the subtitlessetting, the media guidance application may receive a user request toaccess a second media asset. For example, the user may request to tuneto a channel on which the show “Sports Center” is provided. In response,the media guidance application may present the second media asset (e.g.,“Sports Center”) to the user. While watching the second media asset, themedia guidance application may receive a user request to disable thesubtitles setting because the setting was previously enabled. Inresponse to receiving the user request to disable the subtitles setting,the media guidance application may retrieve one or more characteristicsassociated with the second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve any information associated with the secondmedia asset as the characteristic (e.g., a category of the first mediaasset, a genre, a type, a quality indicator such as HD or SD, a title, acontent source, a time, and/or any combination thereof). In someimplementations, the media guidance application may select a combinationof one or more of the multiple characteristics associated with thesecond media asset for use as the characteristic.

In some embodiments, in response to receiving the user request todisable the subtitles setting, the media guidance application maycross-reference database 600 (FIG. 6) to determine whether the one ormore selected characteristics exist in database 600 alone or as acombined entry. For example, if the media guidance application selects agenre and type as the characteristic, the media guidance application maycross-reference database 600 to determine whether an entry for thecombination of genre (e.g., comedy) and type (e.g., broadcast program)exists. If an entry in database 600 exists for the selectedcharacteristic(s), the media guidance application may determine whetherthe associated subtitles setting is an enabled state or a disabledstate. In response to determining that the associated subtitles settingis the disabled state, the media guidance application may not updatedatabase 600. Alternatively, in response to determining that theassociated subtitles setting is the enabled state, the media guidanceapplication may update the entry in database 600 to change theassociated subtitles setting to be the disabled state. If the usersubsequently requests access to a media asset with the same or similarselected characteristics, the media guidance application mayautomatically disable the subtitles setting, if it is enabled, based onthe indication in database 600.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatan entry in database 600 does not exist for the selectedcharacteristic(s). In response, the media guidance application may addan entry to database 600 with the selected characteristic(s) and anassociated indication that the subtitles setting is in the disabledstate.

In some implementations, the one or more characteristics of the mediaasset that are selected may be based on a user input. For example, theuser may set up preferences indicating that only an enumerated set ofcharacteristics should be analyzed to determine whether or not toenabled/disable the subtitles setting. Specifically, the user mayindicate that characteristics corresponding to genre and type should beanalyzed to determine whether or not to enable/disable the subtitlessetting. Accordingly, the media guidance application may only retrievethe characteristics of genre and type of a given media asset for use incross-referencing database 600 and determining whether or not toautomatically enable/disable the subtitles setting.

Subsequent to accessing the first and second media assets and enablingthe subtitles setting followed by disabling the subtitles setting, themedia guidance application may receive a user request to access a thirdmedia asset. For example, the user may request to tune to a channel onwhich the show “Family Guy” is provided. In response, the media guidanceapplication may present the third media asset (e.g., “Family Guy”) tothe user. As explained below in connection with FIG. 5, the mediaguidance application may determine that the third media asset has acharacteristic associated with enabling the subtitles setting.Accordingly, the media guidance application may automatically enable thesubtitles setting for the third media asset.

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative display screen 500 of a media asset forwhich a subtitles setting has been automatically enabled in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, screen 500 mayinclude media asset 510 (e.g., third media asset “Family Guy”) and anoverlay 520. Overlay 520 may include characteristics associated withmedia asset 510 (e.g., genre, title, content source, transmission time,etc.).

In response to receiving the user request to access media asset 510, themedia guidance application may retrieve one or more characteristicsassociated with media asset 510. The choice of which characteristics themedia guidance application retrieves may be user-defined or pre-definedby the system. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe genre characteristic and length characteristic of media asset 510.Specifically, the genre characteristic of media asset 510 may be“comedy” and the length may be “more than 30 minutes”. The mediaguidance application may cross-reference the retrieved characteristicswith database 600 to determine whether any entries in database 600 matchthe retrieved characteristics. Database 600 may determine that the genre“comedy” is associated with enabling the subtitles setting and that thecharacteristic “more than 30 minutes” is not associated with thesubtitles option. In response to receiving the indication from database600 that at least one of the retrieved characteristics (in this case the“comedy” genre) is associated with enabling the subtitles option, themedia guidance application may automatically enable the subtitlessetting. In response to receiving the indication from database 600 thatnone of the retrieved characteristics (in this case the “comedy” genre)is associated with enabling the subtitles option, the media guidanceapplication may maintain the current state of the subtitles setting(e.g., the media guidance application may maintain the subtitles settingin the disabled state). In some embodiments, instead of automaticallyenabling the subtitles setting, the media guidance application mayautomatically request user confirmation (e.g., through a displayedinteractive prompt) to enable the subtitles setting in response to theindication from database 600. After the user confirms the desire forsubtitles by responding to the confirmation, the media guidanceapplication may enable the subtitles setting.

In some embodiments, database 600 may determine that one of theretrieved characteristics is associated with enabling the subtitlessetting and another of the retrieved characteristics is associated withdisabling the subtitles setting. In such circumstances, the mediaguidance application may receive this indication and may default toenabling the subtitles setting if any of the characteristics isassociated with enabling the subtitles setting. Alternatively, the mediaguidance application may enable the subtitles setting if a majority ofthe characteristics is associated with enabling the subtitles setting.Alternatively, the media guidance application may enable the subtitlessetting based on priorities assigned to the characteristics. Forexample, a first characteristic may be assigned a first priority and maybe associated with disabling the subtitles setting and a secondcharacteristic may be assigned a second priority that is lower than thefirst priority and may be associated with enabling the subtitlessetting. In such circumstances, the media guidance application maydisable the subtitles setting (or maintain the current state of thesubtitles setting) because the higher priority characteristic isassociated with disabling the subtitles setting.

In some embodiments, after the subtitles option is automaticallyenabled, the subtitles 530 (or closed-captioning) associated with mediaasset 510 may be presented together with media asset 510. In someimplementations, subtitles 530 may be presented in an overlayingrelationship with media asset 510 (overlaying media asset 510). In someimplementations, subtitles 530 (when the subtitles setting is enabled)may be presented on a second screen device while media asset 510continues to be presented on the first device (the primary device).

In some embodiments, when the media guidance application automaticallyenables the subtitles setting, the media guidance application maydisplay a prompt 540. Prompt 540 may indicate that the subtitles settinghas been automatically enabled and the one or more characteristics thatare associated with media asset 510 that caused the subtitles setting tobe automatically enabled. The media guidance application may provide adisable option 550. In response to receiving a user selection of disableoption 550, the media guidance application may prevent enabling thesubtitles setting automatically for the selected characteristics.Specifically, in response to receiving a user selection of option 550,the media guidance application may update the entries in database 600for the retrieved characteristics of media asset 510 to change theassociated subtitles setting from being enabled to being disabled.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may maintain adatabase 700 of activity types associated with enabling/disabling thesubtitles setting. For example, in response to receiving a user requestto enable the subtitles setting, the media guidance application maydetermine an activity type associated with the user. In particular, themedia guidance application may receive from monitoring component 316information about biometrics of the user. The media guidance applicationmay cross-reference database 700 (FIG. 7) to determine whether theactivity type exists in database 700. For example, if the media guidanceapplication receives biometrics of the user, the media guidanceapplication may cross-reference database 700 to determine whether anentry for the received biometrics exists. If an entry in database 700exists for the activity type, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the associated subtitles setting is an enabled stateor a disabled state. In response to determining that the associatedsubtitles setting is the enabled state, the media guidance applicationmay not update database 700. Alternatively, in response to determiningthat the associated subtitles setting is the disabled state, the mediaguidance application may update the entry in database 700 to change theassociated subtitles setting to be the enabled state. If the usersubsequently requests access to a media asset and the media guidanceapplication determines the existence of the same or similar activitytype (e.g., the same or similar biometrics), the media guidanceapplication may automatically enable the subtitles setting, if it isdisabled, based on the indication in database 700.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may only update asubtitle setting state in database 700 after receiving a thresholdnumber of similar inconsistent requests. For example, the user mayrequest that the subtitle setting be enabled during existence of a givenactivity type. If the characteristic is associated in database 700 witha disabled state, the media guidance application may determine for thatsame activity type how many times the user previously requested that thesubtitles setting be enabled. If the user previously requested that thesubtitles setting for the activity type be enabled more than a thresholdnumber of times (e.g., more than 5 times), and the associated subtitlessetting is the disabled state, the media guidance application may updatethe entry in database 700 to change the associated subtitles setting tobe the enabled state. If the user previously requested that thesubtitles setting for the activity type be enabled less than a thresholdnumber of times (e.g., less than 5 times), and the associated subtitlessetting is the disabled state, the media guidance application maymaintain the state of the entry in database 700 as disabled state.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may update asubtitle setting state in database 700 to correspond to a majority ofsubtitles setting requests. For example, one user may request that thesubtitles setting be enabled when a given activity type exists whereasanother user may request that the subtitles setting be disabled when thesame given activity type exists. If the activity type is associated indatabase 700 with a disabled state, the media guidance application maydetermine a majority of previous user requests (e.g., over a givenperiod of time (days) associated with enabling or disabling thesubtitles setting. If the majority previous user requests for theactivity type were to enable the subtitles setting, and the associatedsubtitles setting is the disabled state, the media guidance applicationmay update the entry in database 700 to change the associated subtitlessetting to be the enabled state. If the majority previous user requestsfor the activity type were to disable the subtitles setting, and theassociated subtitles setting is the disabled state, the media guidanceapplication may maintain the state of the entry in database 700 asdisabled state.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may include with asubtitle setting state in database 700 a user identifier. For example,the user may request that the subtitle setting be enabled when a givenactivity type exists. The media guidance application may identify theuser (e.g., using biometric information, facial recognition, or based ona stored user profile). In response to receiving the user request toenable the subtitles setting, the media guidance application maycross-reference database 700 to determine whether the activity typeexists in database 700 alone or as a combined entry. For example, if themedia guidance application selects running as the activity type, themedia guidance application may cross-reference database 700 to determinewhether an entry for the running exists. If an entry in database 700exists for the selected characteristic(s), the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the entry corresponds to the identityof the user. If the entry corresponds to the identity of the user andthe associated subtitles setting is the enabled state, the mediaguidance application may not update database 700. If the entrycorresponds to the identity of the user and the associated subtitlessetting is the disabled state, the media guidance application may updatethe entry for the user in database 700 to be associated with an enabledsubtitles setting state. In some implementations, if the entry does notcorrespond to the identity of the user and the associated subtitlessetting is the enabled state, the media guidance application may add anew entry in database 700 that is associated with the identity of theuser. The new entry may indicate that for this particular user havingthe user identification, the subtitles setting should be enabled for thegiven activity type. If the same user subsequently requests access whenthe activity type exists (e.g., while running), the media guidanceapplication may automatically enable the subtitles setting, if it isdisabled, based on the indication in database 700. However, if adifferent user subsequently requests access to a media asset when theactivity type exists (e.g., while running), the media guidanceapplication may maintain the state of the subtitles setting (e.g.,disabled if it is disabled), based on the indication in database 600.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatan entry in database 700 does not exist for the activity type. Inresponse, the media guidance application may add an entry to database700 with the activity type (e.g., the received biometric information forthe user) and an associated indication that the subtitles setting is inthe enabled state.

For example, the media guidance application may receive a user requestto enable subtitles while the user is running. The media guidanceapplication may select running as the activity type and store anindication (if one does not already exist) in database 700 for therunning activity indicating that the subtitles setting is in the enabledstate. When the user runs in the future (e.g., on another day) andrequests access to a media asset, the media guidance application maydetermine that the activity type is running and is associated with asubtitles setting that is in the enabled state. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may automatically enable the subtitles setting. Insome implementations, the media guidance application may maintain thesubtitles setting in the enabled/disabled state that was automaticallyselected until the activity type is no longer detected. For example, assoon as the user stops running, the media guidance application maydetermine that the activity type does not exist and may thereforedisable the subtitles setting.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may enable thesubtitles setting if the current activity type matches an activity typethat is associated with a state of the subtitles setting that is enabledand if the characteristic of the media asset being accessed is alsoassociated with a state of the subtitles setting that is enabled. Forexample, in response to receiving a user request to access a mediaasset, the media guidance application may retrieve characteristics ofthe media asset. The media guidance application may cross-reference theretrieved characteristics with database 600 (FIG. 6) to determinewhether or not the associated subtitles setting is in the enabled ordisabled state. In response to determining that the characteristics areassociated with the enabled state, the media guidance application maydetermine an activity type associated with the user. The media guidanceapplication may cross-reference the retrieved activity type withdatabase 700 (FIG. 7) to determine whether or not the associatedsubtitles setting is in the enabled or disabled state. In response todetermining that the characteristics are associated with the enabledstate and the activity type is associated with the enabled state of thesubtitles setting, the media guidance application may automaticallyenable the subtitles setting.

In some implementations, if either the characteristics of the mediaasset or the activity type is associated with the enabled state of thesubtitles setting, the media guidance application may automaticallyenable the subtitles setting. In some implementations, if thecharacteristics of the media asset are associated with the disabledstate but the activity type is associated with the enabled state of thesubtitles setting, the media guidance application may automaticallyenable the subtitles setting. In some implementations, if thecharacteristics of the media asset are associated with the enabled statebut the activity type is associated with the disabled state of thesubtitles setting, the media guidance application may automaticallyenable the subtitles setting.

In some embodiments, database 700 may be shared and updated amongmultiple users. For example, database 700 may be stored on a remoteserver. As different users enable/disable subtitles settings of theirrespective devices, the shared database 700 may be updated to indicatethe corresponding enabled/disabled state for the activity types of therespective users. The media guidance application may query database 700at the remote server to determine whether a corresponding activity typeis associated with an enabled or disabled state of the subtitlessetting. The remote server may respond to the media guidance applicationwith the indication of whether the characteristic is associated with theenabled or disabled state of the subtitles setting and the mediaguidance application may automatically adjust the subtitles settingaccordingly.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams of a process 800 for automatically updatinguser preferences for subtitles in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. At step 810, a user request to enable subtitles isreceived while the user is viewing a first media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may present a first media asset (e.g.,Seinfeld) and the user may press a SUBTITLES key or select a subtitleson-screen option to enable the subtitles setting.

At step 820, a characteristic of the first media asset may be retrieved.For example, the media guidance application may access media guidancedata associated with the first media asset to retrieve informationassociated with the first media asset (e.g., title, length, description,genre, category, type, etc.). The media guidance application may selectone or more of the information associated with the first media asset asthe characteristic.

At step 830, the retrieved one or more characteristics may becross-referenced with a database of characteristics associated with thesubtitles setting states. For example, the media guidance applicationmay cross-reference the one or more characteristics with database 600(FIG. 6) to determine whether a characteristic exists that matches theselected one or more characteristics.

At step 840, a determination is made as to whether the retrievedcharacteristic matches characteristics stored in the database. Inresponse to determining that the characteristic matches characteristicsin the database, the process proceeds to step 842; otherwise, theprocess proceeds to step 860.

At step 842, a determination is made as to whether the associatedsubtitles state is disabled. In response to determining that theassociated subtitles state is disabled, the process proceeds to step850, otherwise the process proceeds to step 884. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the state of the subtitlessetting that is associated with the characteristic in database 600determined to match is enabled or disabled.

At step 850, the associated state of the subtitles setting is modifiedto be enabled. For example, the media guidance application may modifythe state of the subtitles setting that is associated with thecharacteristic in database 600 to be enabled from being disabled.

At step 860, an entry is added to the database for the characteristicassociated with the state for the subtitles setting set to enabled. Forexample, the media guidance application may instruct database 600 to addan entry having the retrieved characteristic of the first media assetbeing associated with an enabled subtitles setting state (e.g., a newentry with a first field matching the retrieved characteristic andsecond field being an indication of an enabled state of the subtitlessetting).

At step 870, a user request to access a second media asset is received.For example, the media guidance application may receive a user requestto tune to a channel on which the second media asset (e.g., “FamilyGuy”) is provided.

At step 872, one or more characteristics associated with the secondmedia asset may be cross-referenced with the database of characteristicsassociated with the subtitles setting states. For example, the mediaguidance application may cross-reference one or more characteristics(e.g., a selected subset of information) of the second media asset withdatabase 600 (FIG. 6) to determine whether a characteristic exists thatmatches the selected one or more characteristics.

At step 880, a determination is made as to whether the retrievedcharacteristic of the second media asset matches characteristics storedin the database. In response to determining that the characteristicmatches characteristics in the database, the process proceeds to step882; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 884.

At step 882, the associated state of the subtitles setting for thesecond media asset characteristic is retrieved. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the state of the subtitles settingfrom the subtitles settings state field of database 600 that correspondsto the characteristics field that matches the characteristics of thesecond media asset.

At step 884, the current state of the subtitles setting is maintained.For example, the media guidance application may not change the subtitlessetting of user equipment device 300. Accordingly, if the subtitlessetting was last set to the enabled state, subtitles may continue to bepresented (if available) for any media asset that is accessed.Similarly, if the subtitles setting was last set to the disabled state,subtitles may not be presented for any media asset that is accessed.

At step 890, a determination is made as to whether the current subtitlessetting state matches the retrieved associated subtitles setting state.In response to determining that the current subtitles setting statematches the retrieved associated subtitles setting state, the processproceeds to step 884; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 892. Forexample, the media guidance application may compare the current state ofthe subtitles setting (e.g., the state of the subtitles setting of userequipment device 300 that was last set) to the state retrieved fromdatabase 600 to determine whether they match.

At step 892, the current subtitles setting state is automaticallychanged to correspond to the state retrieved from database 600. Forexample, if database 600 returns to the media guidance application thevalue of the subtitles setting state field indicating the state to beenabled, the media guidance application may automatically modify thecurrent subtitles state from disabled to enabled. Alternatively, ifdatabase 600 returns to the media guidance application the value of thesubtitles setting state field indicating the state to be disabled, themedia guidance application may automatically modify the currentsubtitles state from enabled to disabled.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of a process 900 for automatically enabling asubtitles setting based on activity types in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. At step 910, a user request to access afirst media asset is received. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive a user request to access a channel that providesthe media asset “Seinfeld”.

At step 920, a type of activity associated with the user is detected.For example, the media guidance application may receive biometricinformation associated with the user from monitoring component 316 (FIG.3). Alternatively, or in addition, the media guidance application mayuse monitoring component 316 to detect one or more gestures or brainwaveinformation associated with the user. The media guidance application mayin some implementations detect a physical activity as the type ofactivity (e.g., that the user is running).

At step 930, the detected type of activity may be cross-referenced witha database of activity types associated with a subtitles setting state.For example, the media guidance application may cross-reference theactivity type with database 700 (FIG. 7 to determine whether an activitytype exists that matches the detected activity type.

At step 940, a determination is made as to whether the detected activitytype matches activity) types stored in the database. In response todetermining that the detected activity type matches, the processproceeds to step 990; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 950.

At step 990, the associated subtitles setting state of the detectedactivity type is retrieved. For example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve the state of the subtitles setting from the subtitlessetting state field of database 700 that corresponds to the activitytype field that matches the detected activity type associated with theuser.

At step 950, a determination is made as to whether a user request tochange the subtitles setting was received. In response to determiningthat the user request to change the subtitles setting was received, theprocess proceeds to step 960; otherwise, the process proceeds to step980.

At step 960, a new entry is added to the database for the detectedactivity type with an associated state for the subtitles settingcorresponding to the user request to change the setting. For example,the media guidance application may instruct database 700 to add an entryhaving the detected activity type being associated with a subtitlessetting state corresponding to that requested by the user (e.g., a newentry with a first field matching the detected activity type and secondfield being an indication of an enabled or disabled state of thesubtitles setting). If the user last requested to enable the subtitlessetting, the media guidance application may instruct database 700 to addan entry having the detected activity type being associated with asubtitles setting state set to the enabled state. If the user lastrequested to disable the subtitles setting, the media guidanceapplication may instruct database 700 to add an entry having thedetected activity type being associated with a subtitles setting stateset to the disabled state.

At step 970, the subtitles settings state is changed to correspond tothe user request to change the subtitles setting state. For example, ifthe media guidance application received a user request to enable thesubtitles setting, the media guidance application may change thesubtitles settings from the disabled state to the enabled state.

At step 980, the current state of the subtitles setting is maintained.For example, the media guidance application may not change the subtitlessetting of user equipment device 300. Accordingly, if the subtitlessetting was last set to the enabled state, subtitles may continue to bepresented (if available) for any media asset that is accessed.Similarly, if the subtitles setting was last set to the disabled state,subtitles may not be presented for any media asset that is accessed.

At step 992, a determination is made as to whether the current subtitlessetting state matches the retrieved associated subtitles setting state.In response to determining that the current subtitles setting statematches the retrieved associated subtitles setting state, the processproceeds to step 980; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 994. Forexample, the media guidance application may compare the current state ofthe subtitles setting (e.g., the state of the subtitles setting of userequipment device 300 that was last set) to the state retrieved fromdatabase 700 to determine whether they match.

At step 994, the current subtitles setting state is automaticallychanged to correspond to the state retrieved from database 700. Forexample, if database 700 returns to the media guidance application thevalue of the subtitles setting state field indicating the state to beenabled, the media guidance application may automatically modify thecurrent subtitles state from disabled to enabled. Alternatively, ifdatabase 700 returns to the media guidance application the value of thesubtitles setting state field indicating the state to be disabled, themedia guidance application may automatically modify the currentsubtitles state from enabled to disabled.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

1. A method for automatically enabling subtitles, the method comprising:receiving a user request to access a first media asset; detecting a typeof activity associated with the user in response to receiving the userrequest; cross-referencing the type of activity with a database ofactivity types associated with subtitles; and automatically enabling asubtitles setting when the subtitles setting is disabled, in response todetermining that the type of activity associated with the user isassociated with subtitles.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first ofthe activity types is associated with at least one of a firstcombination of biometric states, first brainwave information, and afirst geographical location, and wherein a second of the activity typesis associated with at least one of a second combination of biometricstates, second brainwave information and a second geographical location.3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the type of activityassociated with the user comprises receiving at least one of biometricinformation, brainwave information, and location information from amobile device associated with the user.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the mobile device includes a monitoring component that iswearable by the user.
 5. The method of claim 1 further comprisingautomatically disabling the subtitles setting in response to determiningthat the user is no longer associated with the previously detected typeof activity.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining anactivity type associated with the user when a user request to enable thesubtitles setting is received while viewing a second media asset; andadding the determined activity type to the database of activity typesassociated with subtitles.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein thesubtitles are transmitted together with the first media asset.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein first media asset is presented to the user ona first user equipment device, and wherein the subtitles setting isenabled for presenting subtitles to the user on a second user equipmentdevice.
 9. The method of claim 1 further comprising automaticallyselectively enabling the subtitles setting based on at least one of alocation, brainwave information, and biometric information.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein detecting the type of activity comprisesdetermining that the user is engaged in a physical activity that impairsthe user's ability to hear audio corresponding to the first media asset,wherein the database of activity types associated with subtitlesincludes physical activity types that impair the user's ability to hearaudio.
 11. A system for automatically enabling subtitles, the systemcomprising: a user input device; a storage device; and control circuitryconfigured to: receive a user request from the user input device toaccess a first media asset; detect a type of activity associated withthe user in response to receiving the user request; cross-reference thetype of activity with a database of activity types associated withsubtitles stored in the storage device; and automatically enable asubtitles setting when the subtitles setting is disabled, in response todetermining that the type of activity associated with the user isassociated with subtitles.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein a firstof the activity types is associated with at least one of a firstcombination of biometric states, first brainwave information, and afirst geographical location, and wherein a second of the activity typesis associated with at least one of a second combination of biometricstates, second brainwave information and a second geographical location.13. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry configured todetect the type of activity associated with the user is furtherconfigured to receive at least one of biometric information, brainwaveinformation, and location information from a mobile device associatedwith the user.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the mobile deviceincludes a monitoring component that is wearable by the user.
 15. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto automatically disable the subtitles setting in response todetermining that the user is no longer associated with the previouslydetected type of activity.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: determine an activity typeassociated with the user when a user request to enable the subtitlessetting is received while viewing a second media asset; and add thedetermined activity type to the database of activity types associatedwith subtitles.
 17. The system of claim 11, wherein the subtitles aretransmitted together with the first media asset.
 18. The system of claim11, wherein first media asset is presented to the user on a first userequipment device, and wherein the subtitles setting is enabled forpresenting subtitles to the user on a second user equipment device. 19.The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to automatically selectively enable the subtitles settingbased on at least one of a location, brainwave information, andbiometric information.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry configured to detect the type of activity is furtherconfigured to determine that the user is engaged in a physical activitythat impairs the user's ability to hear audio corresponding to the firstmedia asset, wherein the database of activity types associated withsubtitles includes physical activity types that impair the user'sability to hear audio. 21-50. (canceled)